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At least 200 dead in Sierra Leone mudslides and flooding
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) -- Mudslides and torrential flooding killed at least 200 people in and around Sierra Leone's capital early Monday following heavy rains, with many victims trapped in homes buried under tons of mud....
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Pope Francis meets with participants of Italy's Educational Commitment Movement of Catholic Action (MIEAC) national congress on Oct. 31, 2024, at a private audience held in the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaVatican City, Oct 31, 2024 / 10:55 am (CNA).Pope Francis encouraged members of Italy's Educational Commitment Movement of Catholic Action (MIEAC) on Thursday to not be afraid to propose high Christian ideals to young people in a secularized society."Christian education crosses unexplored terrain, marked by anthropological and cultural changes, on which we are still seeking answers in the light of the Word of God," the Holy Father said to participants of MIEAC's national congress at a private audience held in the Vatican.MIEAC is an educational project connected to Italy's Catholic Action that was established in 1990 with the aim of fostering the integral development of young people in all its dimensions: existential, spiritual, affective, cultural, social, and political.Du...
Spain has suffered what is considered the third worst natural disaster in the country's recent history. / Credit: Courtesy of Caritas SpainMadrid, Spain, Oct 30, 2024 / 16:15 pm (CNA).Torrential rains have inundated southern and eastern Spain, leaving at least 66 people dead. In response, the Catholic Church has expressed its pain and condolences over the tragedy and Caritas has launched a special campaign.The flash flooding is considered the third largest natural disaster in Spain's contemporary history, which has primarily hit the territories of the Archdiocese of Valencia and the Dioceses of Cuenca and Albacete.Only the 1996 flood in the town of Biescas in the Pyrenees, with 89 deaths, and the 1957 flooding of the Turia River, in which between an estimated 80 and 100 lives were lost, exceed the death toll confirmed to date.The archbishop of Valencia, Enrique Benavent, celebrated a Eucharist on Wednesday morning in the Basilica of the Our Lady of the Abandoned, the city'...
"When you play with spirits, with elements of esotericism or occultism you are opening doors to the Evil One," warned Father Javier Ortega, a priest of the Diocese of Alcalá de Henares in Spain. / Credit: ShutterstockMadrid, Spain, Oct 30, 2024 / 16:45 pm (CNA).Father Javier Ortega, a priest of the Diocese of Alcalá de Henares in Spain, said that costumes of demons, witches, and the dead that are usually worn for Halloween are not recommended because "you are in some way tempting the devil."In a recent interview published by the diocese on its website, Ortega asked parents to not allow their children to participate in these celebrations and, if they do, "to dress up as saints or in costumes of beautiful and lovely things."Don't let them "dress up as demons, dress up as witches, or dress up as dead people," he said, "because in some way you are opening doors, you are in some way tempting the devil… In other words, it's not something neutral."The priest also pointed out...
